Best Grilled Cheese Recipes

BLTs are nice, but swapping out that lettuce for some cheese and frying it up can really take a sandwich to the next level. 

Do you remember when you were a kid and thought it would be so cool to be a grown up because you could eat whatever you wanted? Well here you are. And what better way to satisfy younger you than with your favorite snack food with dinner in the form of a nacho grilled cheese sandwich.  If you’re a fan of jalapeno poppers, this nacho spin on grilled cheese is made for you. All you need is jarred pickled jalapenos, American cheese, white bread and butter. You don’t even need to dice up the jalapenos — just place the slices right on top of the cheese and gently press down with the other slice of bread to lock it all in. This is another one where you should start with the base of a classic grilled cheese.

Apples, sharp cheddar cheese, maple syrup and bacon star in this perfectly sweet and savory spin on a traditional grilled cheese. Courtesy of McCormick

An amazing grilled cheese sandwich is simple, and yet in that simplicity, so rife with potential disaster. There are few things as sacrilegious as a failed grilled cheese sandwich. There’s nothing worse than biting into a grilled cheese sandwich and finding that the bread isn’t properly caramelized and crunchy and that, for the love of all things cheesy, the cheese isn’t melted all the way through. Are you kidding? Seriously? To avoid failure and to achieve grilled cheese perfection you have only to keep five things in mind: a sufficiently but not overly grilled exterior, correct cheese-to-bread type, correct cheese-to-bread ratio, use of butter, and cheese that is melted all the way through. For more tips, check out this primer on How to Make the Ultimate Classic Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Click here to see 12 Jazzed-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipes for Grown-Ups (and Kids, Too).

Add some streaky bacon to your grilled cheese sandwich to add a little extra salty flavor and crunch.